Date : 28/04/2003
Belgian PM says strong EU military will back its foreign voice
BRUSSELS, April 28 (KUNA) -- Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in
remarks published Monday creating a strong European Union (EU) military forces
would back the unions common foreign policy.
Verhofstadt, interviewed by daily Le Soir newspaper, added if Europe was
militarily stronger, the north Atlantic treaty organization (NATO) would be
more powerful.
His remarks came one day ahead of a mini-summit between Belgium, France,
Germany and Luxembourg in Brussels, where the heads of state and government
would discuss collective defense cooperation.
"I believe it is impossible to create a foreign policy at the heart of the
EU if we dont have a coherent tool, that is the defense," he said.
The EU was divided over the Iraqi matter and thus failed to deliver a
strong common foreign voice over the crisis. Yet, Verhofstadt said the summit
has nothing to do with the Iraqi matter.
He added the Iraqi crisis might play as a "catalyst" for the summiteers
that a single foreign policy voice should be a major target.
The summit was seen as a creation of a force within NATO and a counter
power against the US.
But Verhofstadt brushed aside such thinking. "I am anxious to say that this
summit is not directed against NATO or the Americans.
He, instead, was implicating that a stronger European military
would help the Americans and thus the 19-member military alliance.
"For me that next to the North American pillar" there is equally a European
pillar that would result in a NATO more stable, more powerful, he underlined.
NATO members were split too regarding the provision of defense military
hardware to turkey, the alliances sole member bordering Iraq.
The one-day mini-summit, said Verhofstadt, would discuss the concept of the
European defense and its relation with NATO while considering, for example, a
reinforced cooperation in this regard, creation of European agency on
disarmament or common military formations, and to call on other
non-participants to cooperate with the four countries.
But Britain, a key EU state, is not taking part in the summit. Verhofstadt
said London should be associated and the summit was not a small closed club
but open for everyone.
The Americans have been complaining within NATO that European member states
were spending too little on their military.
Verhofstadt, who is running in general elections next may 19, is
acknowledging that divergence but said the Europeans and Americans share many
principles, such as liberty, human rights, rule of law and democracy.
Asked on a European army creation, the Belgian prime minister said he would
go for what he called an "intervention force", which consists of tens of
thousands of troops helping national armies.
Verhofstadt, whose country opposed the military action in Iraq, said such a
force would be useful to enforce a peaceful solution.
In Europe, he said, there were too much soldiers but few modern military
equipment. (end)
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